Belegarth

besides a locking wing divider for marking a cutting line, I'm wondering if there are any tools are tricks to enable me to cut and accurate blue foam strips?

A leather strap cutter, such as this.

Also, I use a t-square and a straight edge. Get's me pretty much perfect cuts every time.

I'm using a long, metal ruler for my strips, but they're still turning out a little wibbly wobbly, timey wimey as the rules moves slightly when I'm cutting up against it. Would the t-square help stop the ruler from moving?

You can also ask around to see if a friend or family member has a small band saw. Set the fence, and it's incredibly fast to cut as many strips as you need, perfect, every time. If you plan on doing a lot of smithing, they are about $100 and you can do amazing things with them.

Remember, when borrowing anyone's tools, don't be a tool: clean up your mess, and say thanks.

If your ruler is moving when you're cutting up against it, then make shorter cuts. When I cut strips, I do the following:

• Figure out the exact width I want
• Set that depth on my t-square
• Using the t-square for measuring, make several marks along the foam for the length I need.
• Line my ruler up with those marks. If the edge of your foam is even, they should line up.
• Make cuts in between those points with a sharp razor, holding the ruler still with one hand.

You can also try gently clamping the ruler down on the foam on a work surface. If that doesn't work for you and you don't want to purchase a strip cutter, make your own jig.

Part of it is simply practice. I've had alot of practice cutting things over the years. Drywall, cardboard, insulation, leather, etc.

but a couple tips. Use a sharp blade. This more than anything else makes cuts easier. Put a new blade in your knife before you start making key cuts.

consider getting a bigger/wider metal yard stick. There are some things you can do like use clamps as well. You can get a pair of quick clamps at the hardware store like harbor freight or home Depot.

I do a lot of my foam-smithing on a floor, and I like to hold the ruler down with my hand near the top, and one of my feet (wear shoes for this) near the other end to ensure it doesn't move too much.

If you are working in a well-ventilated space, you can use a hot-wire cutter (except on EVA foam). It's beautifully easy.

-Lars

Edited totcorrect auto-correct

Lars... can you find a link, perhaps on Amazon to what you're talking about? I'm completely unfamiliar with the tech. How fast does it cut? Even the smallest bandsaws will pretty much yawn at 2" thick 2# foam. Do these cutters similarly smile at mere foam?

Looks like my post got mangled. I meant a hot-wire cutter.

I use this one: http://www.proxxon-direct.com/acatalog/ ... MOCUT.html - and it's a fairly low-cost one.

It cuts nicely and quietly, and allows fairly complex cuts including slanted. It's probably not as fast as a quality band saw, but it's about as fast as I can effectively handle the foam.

-Lars

Do you find that it creates any fumes when you cut foam with it, Haardgrim?

For regular camping mat-style foam, slight fumes, not nearly as nasty as DAP fumes. For Evacell foam, the fumes are really nasty, plus it doesn't cut it well at all.

I've made up a foam cutter, which consists of a pair of threaded rods attached to a base that can be used to lock a long snap razor to the rods. It is adjustable and easily used to cut multiple strips of foam to the same width. It was cheap to make and takes very limited skill to operate. I will get a pic or two and post it up in the next little while.

Posted up the photos of the foam cutter here http://imgur.com/a/o1edg

That's a cool idea. Thanks for posting a photo.

I got some sheets of Stratocell recently and timed cutting and trimming fries with the hot-wire cutter. I got up to as fast as cutting 2 fries per minute, half as much when cutting through the "skin" of Stratocell s Plus. So basically cutting nice, even cuts is not a time sink. I love that thing!

-Hårdgrim Bonebreaker of Monachium